I. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an audio conversation apparatus, and more particularly to an audio conversation apparatus for allowing a simultaneous audio conversation among parties-to-talk-with each belonging to a predetermined group or a simultaneous audio conversation among a plurality of groups.
II. Description of the Related Art
A conventional audio conversation apparatus as described below is known. Specifically, in the conventional audio conversation apparatus, a communication section receives, through a network, at least an audio of a party-to-talk-with. A party-to-talk-with identification section identifies the party-to-talk-with based on a telephone number, and further identifies a direction assigned to the party-to-talk-with having been identified among directions which are previously determined for each of parties-to-talk-with. Moreover, an sound image localization section processes a monophonic audio of the party-to-talk-with having been received by the communication section so as to generate a stereophonic audio, so that the audio of the party-to-talk-with is localized based on the identification made by the party-to-talk-with identification section so as to represent a three-dimensional acoustic field. An audio image reproduction section reproduces the audio of the party-to-talk-with represented as the stereophonic audio having been localized by the sound image localization section, so as to represent the three-dimensional acoustic field (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-184017).